reuters.com
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June 4 (Reuters) - Karine Jean-Pierre, who was former President Joe Biden’s press secretary at the White House from 2022 until 2025, has left the Democratic Party and is now an independent, according to the publisher of her forthcoming book.

“We need to be clear-eyed and questioning, rather than blindly loyal and obedient as we may have been in the past,” she was quoted as saying by Legacy Lit, part of the Hachette Book Group, that will release her book ‘Independent’ in October.

https://archive.ph/6SlZZ

  • uuldika@lemmy.ml
    41·
    2 days ago

    I’d genuinely like to hear what Israel should be doing instead in response to Hamas.

    negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas in exchange for the remaining hostages. reign in the West Bank settlers, to focus the conflict on Gaza specifically rather than the conquest of the Palestinian territories. as part of the ceasefire,

    1. remove IDF troops from Gaza.
    2. freely allow all medical, food, construction and infrastructure aid, along with foreign aid workers. still check all shipments and persons entering for weapons and other contraband. maintain a naval blockade and checkpoints to implement the screening.
    3. rather than having IDF implement the screening, propose a joint peacekeeping force, staffed by Israelis, Egyptians, Jordanians and UN peacekeepers.
    4. offer a pathway towards increased autonomy, easing of travel restrictions, potentially even Palestinian statehood contingent upon the peaceful transition of power from Hamas.
    5. encourage Arab foreign nationals and other non-Israelis to volunteer or do business in Gaza, rebuilding, running aid clinics, teaching school, etc. establish economic prospects for collaboration between Gazans and the rest of the world.
    6. remove Netenyahu from power and investigate him for corruption and his dealings with Hamas. remove Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezazel Smotrich from the Knesset, and ban Otzma Yehudit the way Kahan’s Kach party was outlawed.

    sound fair?

    • Opinionhaver@feddit.ukEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      This doesn’t address the core issue - Hamas. They have no intention of living peacefully next to a Jewish state. They’ve openly stated that they want to destroy Israel and kill Jews. After the IDF withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Hamas didn’t use that time or international aid to build infrastructure or improve life for civilians - they used it to dig tunnels and stockpile weapons in preparation for the ongoing conflict.

      I genuinely don’t believe a two-state solution is viable as long as Hamas exists. If one were established tomorrow, it would likely just return to the same cycle - with rockets being fired indiscriminately at Israeli civilians, and the rest of the world expecting Israel to just take the hits without fighting back.

      • uuldika@lemmy.ml
        2·
        2 days ago

        correct. it doesn’t address the core issue. however, sometimes enemies have to live next to each other. a military solution cannot end Hamas. anything short of full-scale ethnic cleansing of the population of Gaza cannot end Hamas. that is the unfortunate reality. the human cost is too great.

        Hamas murdered 1,195 people on 10/7. Israel has killed ~57,000 in Gaza, and razed it to rubble. Israel has had its retribution, killing 50 Gazans for each dead Israeli. enough.

        • Opinionhaver@feddit.ukEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          I understand that what I’m about to say might come off as cold, but this is how I see the conflict: the overwhelming reason for the high number of civilian casualties isn’t the IDF - it’s Hamas. That’s not to say the IDF or the Israeli government is without guilt, let alone individual soldiers who’ve committed atrocities that absolutely match what Hamas has done. But there’s so much Hamas could have done to protect their own civilian population, and instead they’ve consistently chosen the opposite - to use them as human shields.

          If we now decide that the civilian death toll is intolerable and use that as a reason to pressure Israel into ending the conflict, to me, that’s equivalent to paying ransom to kidnappers. It shows the tactic works - and it encourages more of it. I want us to do the opposite: make it clear that it doesn’t work. If you fight from among civilians, then civilians will get bombed, and the responsibility for that will be placed on you. That’s how Hamas should be treated, and honestly, how their own people should come to see them too.

          I just don’t buy the narrative that Israel is intentionally bombing civilians as part of some ethnic cleansing campaign. If that had been the goal, they could’ve pursued it decades ago. But they haven’t. Hamas, on the other hand - I genuinely believe they would if they could.